“All Questions Answered”

Named after the famous mathematician Kurt Gödel, the Vienna Gödel Lecture brings world class scientists to Vienna. With this lecture series, TU Wien Informatics has established a new annual lecture, illustrating the fundamental contribution of Informatics to our society. The inaugural lecture was held by one of the most influential pioneers in Computer Science history: Donald E. Knuth, Turing Award winner and professor emeritus at Stanford University.

Over 700 guests flocked to the first Vienna Gödel Lecture “All questions answered” by TeX developer and Turing Award winner Donald E. Knuth on May 16th, 2013. In his unconventional lecture Donald E. Knuth, one of the most renowned computer scientists, heralded the new lecture series “Vienna Gödel Lectures” and was open to all questions from the audience. The audience even learned what questions he would have asked himself at this event.

Reunited With Heinz Zemanek

The guests were able to find out what scientific achievements Donald E. Knuth, who was once called “Geek of the Week” by a journalists, would have liked to make himself, why he would recommend Informatics’ studies to young people, why open source software is an integral part of development, how Computer Science will develop in the near future and that he met his friend and colleague Heinz Zemanek again after many years thanks to his visit to Vienna.

“We are delighted that we were able to win Donald E. Knuth as one of the most outstanding scientists for the opening of our Vienna Gödel Lectures,” Dean Gerald Steinhardt explained. Donald E. Knuth is Professor Emeritus at Stanford University, USA, and published his multi-volume work “The Art of Computer Programming”, one of the most important and comprehensive scientific handbooks on computer programming. His research work since the mid-1960s has made him one of the most influential pioneers of Informatics.